A Twist in the Tail
by Melissa Rivers
Summary: Deeks calls his partner for some special assistance


**Title: **_A Twist in the Tail_

**Summary: **_Deeks calls his partner for some special assistance_

**Author Notes: **_This story is set after Personal and sort of follows on from my take on the episode in A Quest for Something Personal. It's not necessary to read that story to understand this one. This was inspired by the episode Imposters and Monty's guest appearance. Spoilers for Personal & Imposters. _

_I am Australian and I do try to use American terms but some of the Aussie terms may slip through. Apologies in advance for any typos or mistakes in grammar. _

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own any characters and NCIS: Los Angeles. I am only playing with Shane Brennan's toys and will put them back when I'm finished._

* * *

"Kens, I need you." Deeks breathed heavily into the cell phone, struggling to get the words out.

"Where are you?" Kensi was alarmed.

Her partner's jovial, happy-go-lucky demeanour was not evident at all in those four simple, but needy words. They worried her and coming so quickly after his near-death experience, she acted immediately, without question. She grabbed her car keys and picked up a warm sweatshirt to toss over her black tank top as she raced out the door of her bungalow.

Deeks rattled off his location to her, his voice tense. He wasn't at his home where he was supposed to be recuperating.

"Do you want me to call anyone else?"

"No, just you." The stress that had been evident in his voice was tempering. "I just need you."

"I'm coming right now. I'll be there in ten." The drive would normally have taken twenty minutes but Kensi knew that this was a drive that she'd have no qualms about breaking the speed limit in.

She had to keep reminding herself that while Deeks sounded stressed and fearful, the fact that he was speaking and not asking for back-up should at least give her some reassurance that it was not a life or death situation, unlike that of only over a week earlier. She pushed her foot down on the accelerator, urging her silver Cadillac to cover the miles quickly between her bungalow and the Santa Monica pier.

Deeks had only been out of hospital for five days and had been at home recuperating, not likely to be cleared for duty for another three weeks. He was not allowed to start running or surfing for at least another week. The location that Deeks had given her was down by the boardwalk at Santa Monica pier. However, she wasn't about to have a go at her partner for pushing the envelope when she would have done exactly the same thing. She totally understood his need to get back to optimum fitness. Hetty might be another matter if she found out about this incident.

Kensi only hoped that he hadn't pulled any of his stitches again. Once was enough and her dreams were still filled with multiple scenarios, all of which heavily involved blood, guns and Deeks. Most of them ended with a much more tragic ending. She swung her car into the nearest parking spot at the pier and went in search of her partner.

She spotted him exactly where he had told her. He was sitting on the beach, hunched over, his arms wrapped around a large shape protectively. His t-shirt was saturated and his hair plastered to his head. The shape in his arms moved and a tail wagged, hitting the sand and sending it into the air. A sad whimper came from the dog.

"It's okay, boy. She'll be here soon."

"She's here already," Kensi broke in as she came up beside Deeks. "What's wrong? Why are you wet? You didn't try surfing, did you?"

"Hey, slow down. I'm okay. It's Monty. He decided to take a flying leap off the pier to chase a seagull that had stolen a toddler's rusk. He's injured his back legs somehow. "

"Monty, you need to stop trying to be a hero. You're taking after your owner." Kensi dropped down beside Deeks and gave the silver haired dog a pat on his head. Monty whined in response.

"Did you have to go in and rescue him?" Kensi asked Deeks. She was tempted to run her hands over his body to check that he hadn't done any further damage to himself in rescuing his dog from the ocean.

"I couldn't let him drown," Deeks argued quietly. The tone reminded Kensi of when he was in hospital remembering the attack in the convenience store and telling her about how it was his fault because he had failed to change his routine. He was subconsciously rubbing the dog's ears, obviously thinking again about what Monty had done to get himself into such a bad situation. Knowing Deeks and his penchant for self-recrimination, he was more than likely blaming himself for allowing it to happen.

"No, I agree. You couldn't," Kensi agreed. "Let's get him to my car and we'll take him to an emergency vet clinic. Unless you have a vet who does emergency calls."

"We have a clinic with a vet on call. We'll need to go to my apartment for the number as my cell phone is dead."

"You rang me not too long ago."

"On a passerby's cell phone. They offered it after they realised my phone hadn't survived the swim."

"Of course."

"Do you think Hetty's going to be mad at me."

"I think she'll understand. You haven't gotten hurt trying to save your dog."

"Not for that… the cell phone."

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Kensi shook her head with a smile on her face. Deeks still had to learn where Hetty's priorities lie – it was her agent's health before physical objects. "How much does he weigh?"

"About fifty pounds."

"I'll carry him."

"No. I'll carry him. I just needed your car to travel him in."

"Deeks, you've been out of hospital for only a week. You are meant to be recuperating, not carrying Monty."

Deeks narrowed his eyes at his partner for a moment, contemplating arguing but decided it wouldn't be worth it as the result would be the same each time – Kensi winning. It was easier to just give in.

"Come on, Monty. We'll go get you all fixed up." Kensi bent down in front of Deeks on her haunches. She slipped one arm under Monty's front legs and the other behind his hindquarters. Monty turned his head toward her as Deeks transferred the weight from his lap into her arms and gave a whine. Deeks helped Kensi rise to her feet, the heaviness of the dog taking her by surprise. Carrying fifty pounds in training was easier that fifty pounds with four legs and a body that can move, changing the balance of that weight. If Deeks hadn't been helping her, she would have ended on her backside in the sand.

"You okay?" Deeks watched his partner, a worried look on his face.

"Yeah."

They began moving slowly together up the beach. Deeks kept close by Kensi, ready to give her support whenever she needed it. The sand was soft beneath their feet and made the walking more difficult. Kensi stumbled as her sandshoe slipped sideways and rolled her ankle. Deeks immediately wrapped his arm around her, managing to save her from falling, as the weight from Monty would have sent her to the ground.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks." Kensi said, her voice strained in direct response to the weight she was carrying. While she worked out and ran daily, carrying Monty was a challenge that she was not used to. As they came to the road, Kensi realised that her car keys were in her jeans pocket.

"Deeks, my keys are in my pocket."

"Which one?"

"Right front."

Deeks swapped sides and came up beside her, his body brushing up against her. He slipped his hand into her pocket, his fingers quickly finding the keys and pulling them out. A shiver ran through her body as Deeks pulled away from her.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to get you wet." Deeks apologised, taking her shiver as a response to his wet clothes brushing up against her.

"You didn't," Kensi responded. She tried not to think too much about having Deeks so close to her that she could feel his breath against her neck as he had bent to remove the keys from her pocket. Nor did she dwell on whether the shiver was due to the cold or as a result of having Deeks brushing against her. "He'll be better off in the backseat as there's too much stuff in the trunk."

Deeks opened the back door, giving a quick smile, not at all surprised to find several pieces of Kensi's clothing littering the seat.

"Just shove them on the floor. There's a blanket in the trunk that could go on the seat," Kensi directed. "Monty, stay still or I'm going to drop you."

Deeks hurried and grabbed the large blanket from the trunk, shoving the clothing on the seat to the floor and put the blanket over the seat.

"You can put him in, Kens."

Kensi moved in and worked out that there was no way for her to easily put the dog in without hurting him. She allowed Monty to move himself in and help him lie down, trying not to hurt himself any more than he had already managed. Monty whimpered a couple of times, moving tentatively around before he settled down into one spot.

Kensi bent down and picked up a US Navy sweatshirt that she had tossed in the car as she had left. "Here, put this on before Hetty does shoot you for catching a cold."

Deeks took the pro-offered sweatshirt, looking at it and knowing the size of his partner. "I doubt one of your sweatshirts is going to fit me."

"It was my father's, so I think it probably will."

"Oh." Deeks pulled the sweatshirt over his head, smelling not a masculine odour but a rather feminine, decidedly sweet scent that reminded him very much of his partner. "What about you? You were shivering a moment ago."

Kensi pulled out a steel grey hooded sweatshirt from the clothes Deeks had dropped to the floor only moments before and shrugged it on.

"Let's get going," Kensi said, grabbing the keys from Deeks as she passed by him.

* * *

_This story came about after seeing Monty without his trousers in the episode Imposters. I knew that I'd had Monty in A Quest for Something Personal being fine and I decided to incorporate his injury into a story. However, to warrant the need for Kensi to come it needed to be a traumatic injury and the dog acting as a hero was too much to resist._

_I know from experience that a dog's knee injury will take about 3 months to be fully functional but can be okay between 6-8 weeks. Treatment of knee injuries has changed markedly since my dog had his done 12 years ago and they now do both knees at the same time and have them up and walking with assistance very quickly._


End file.
